关键词: 中国神话, 翻译, 传教士, 1575-1688

Abstract: Early European missionaries in the period of 1575-1688 held ambivalent attitudes towards the translation of Chinese myths. The question of “to translate or not to translate” beset them both consciously and unconsciously. The paper, as a prelude for studies on the translation history of Chinese myths, investigates the motivation and conditions around which early European missionaries might decide to do it or not. They include the Western tradition of mythical imagination on the East before the Age of Exploration and the interlacing mythical memories between China and the West, myth conception in Europe during Renaissance, and the prevalence of zhiguai tradition during Ming and Qing dynasties in China. However, the research finds that in spite of these conditions, the translation of classic works containing Chinese myths was not given conscious attention and lagged far behind in time compared with that of Confucian classics. By taking the profound theory of “Broad-sense Chinese Myths” developed by Ke Yuan (1982, 1988, 1996, 1998) as a foundation, the paper then redefines “Chinese mythic text in the field of translation”, sets the scope of research objects under discussion, and offers an overview analysis on the suject during this period.